Women Score Big Victory

Gender makeup of college sports teams must match the male-female makeup of the student body, even if far more men on campus are interested in participating in athletics, according to a ruling the Supreme Court let stand Monday.

Although the ruling maintains policy established in 1972, women’s rights groups hailed the decision as another milestone in the movement toward equality for women’s sports. Some men’s coaches and college officials called the ruling unfair to men because it means that more of them could be denied a chance to participate in sports.

No one disagrees, however, that the Title IX amendment has wrought a revolution in women’s athletics over the last 25 years. The amendment says simply that no person may be discriminated against “on the basis of sex” in schools or colleges that receive federal funds.

Today, nearly eight times as many girls are involved in high school sports as in 1972 and colleges have experienced a similar, though less dramatic, increase. Nearly 120,000 women participate in college sports now, up from about 35,000 in 1972.

But college officials have disagreed on what constitutes equality or discrimination.

Since more men still participate than women, some women’s rights advocates have said that colleges still are not complying with the law. On the other hand, some athletic directors complain that they have been forced to drop popular men’s teams in favor of women’s teams that attract fewer participants.

A case from Brown University in Rhode Island tested the definition of equality and led to Monday’s decision, establishing campus-wide “gender parity” as the rule.

In 1991, Brown announced plans to drop men’s golf and water polo, as well as women’s gymnastics and volleyball. The move affected 37 men and 23 women.

The female athletes sued, contending the university was violating Title IX because it had fewer women than men overall in ports. Although there were 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams remaining, 555 of Brown’s varsity athletes were men and 342 women. The student population was essentially half men and half women.

University officials said the gender disparity among its athletes existed because more men wanted to participate in sports.

But a federal judge in Providence and the the U.S. court of appeals in Boston ruled that Brown had violated Title IX by dropping the two women’s teams.

The law demands that a college maintain “gender parity between its student body and its athletic lineup,” the appeals court said.

If colleges do not have numbers of men and women participating in sports reflecting their attendance breakdowns, they can still comply with the law, so long as they are “continuing expanding athletic opportunities [for] the under-represented gender,” the court said.

Because Brown had neither “gender parity” nor an expanding sports program for women, it was in violation of the law, the lower court said.

Groups representing most of the nation’s colleges and universities joined Brown in appealing the case to the Supreme Court. They said this approach creates “preferential quotas” that will force schools to drop men’s teams to create equal numbers.

A brief filed with the high court by coaching groups said that women’s teams frequently draw fewer participants. For example, the NCAA said that an average men’s baseball team in 1995 had 30 players, compared to 17 on the average women’s softball team.

Although it may seem equal for a campus to provide a men’s baseball team and a women’s softball team, this on average “generates a shortfall of players that must somehow be made up elsewhere” to create equal numbers, NCAA officials said.

These disagreements aside, the Supreme Court refused to take up the issue. The justices often look to see if there is a disagreement in the lower courts, where most judges have followed the rule of “gender parity” in college sports.

Without comment, the high court denied the appeal. (Brown vs. Cohen, 96-1321).

The ruling means that Brown must submit a plan to the federal judge in Providence to bring its program into compliance with the law. Colleges and universities that refuse to comply with the law may be threatened with the loss of all federal funds.

The decision is not expected to effect changes at Southern California schools.

Representatives from USC, UCLA and Long Beach State said they are not in violation because they have showed progress toward compliance by adding women’s sports and promoting participation in women’s athletics.

UCLA and USC have each added two women’s sports since 1992, and have dropped some men’s programs. Long Beach State dropped football and is studying the possibility of adding two women’s sports, most likely soccer and water polo.

UCLA, which recently hired an outside consultant to review its gender equity, is also considering adding another sport for women.

Monday’s court action set no legal precedent, so Southland schools, if challenged on compliance with Title IX, would not immediately be held to the same standards as Brown.

Times staff writer George Dohrmann contributed to this story from Los Angeles.